The official version: “People gathered in large numbers at local mosques to offer prayers and greet each other” though in Srinagar “reasonable restrictions were imposed on large gatherings in sensitive areas.” However, there were “some minor localised protests of a routine nature at a few places.” “There have been some isolated incidents of stone pelting, again at an insignificant level. Police handled these locally and dispersed the protesters. There are no major injuries barring 1 or 2 individuals,” the official statement said. The police chief and army commanders undertook aerial survey of the Kashmir Valley on Monday and “found the situation to be absolutely fine.” Detentions by police are “usual” as is regularly done during elections. Media has access to phone and internet at the media centre set up by the government. After having food at a shuttered market with some locals in Shopian and discussing the price of sheep with a trader in Anantnag last week in a bid to show the return of normalcy in Kashmir, the national security advisor undertook an aerial survey of the valley on Monday.

And official data: About “20% shops opened” on Saturday and “over 50%” on Sunday. “Over 2.5 lakh sheep” were sold in Srinagar alone. “Over 300” public points for phone connectivity are functional across the Kashmir division. An official statement also gave out the number of people who went to mosques ranging from 1,800 in Pulwama to 10,000 in Baramulla. Eid was “celebrated in 90% places” said the government’s official spokesperson.

The other version: As per a PTI report: “The festive buzz was missing with roads deserted across large swathes of the Valley, the silence broken only by police sirens and IAF helicopters hovering overhead. …Kashmiris woke up to armed personnel deployed in every possible corner asking them to remain indoors.” Reuters reported: “Hundreds of people shouting anti-India slogans spilled on to the streets following prayers in the neighbourhood of Soura, the site of a big demonstration on Friday … Many women were among the people seen breaking down in tears amid chants of "We want freedom" during the prayers … Residents said the rapt silence on the city’s streets was like nothing they had ever experienced before on the festival.“ News agency Associated Press reported: “Residents have begun to face shortages of food and other necessities as shops remain shuttered and public movement is restricted… Patients have faced shortages of prescription drugs.” The New York Times reported that its correspondents “got one of the first inside views of life under lockdown in Kashmir and found a population that felt besieged, confused, frightened and furious.”

Official vs ‘unofficial’: Earlier, the government had asked international media, such as BBC and Al Jazeera, to explain their "videos on large-scale protests" in Srinagar, telling them that the news was "fabricated". The BBC has stuck to its report and coverage of events in Kashmir. The report had mentioned that over 10,000 people in the valley took part in a protest against India on Friday morning and another had said the army had resorted to violence to counter peaceful protesters in western Srinagar.

All in a day: The average Kashmiri, meanwhile, is running short of food and medicines, say media reports. The screens, including mobiles, are dead because of the complete communication blackout and there are very few newspapers. While no national newspaper has reached Srinagar in the last week, most local dailies have either stopped publication or reduced pages drastically, reports The Tribune. Making a phone call to the outside world from one of the designated phones means up to a four-hour wait for your turn.

Meanwhile, the prime minister invited the rest of India to watch a television programme that “will make you want to visit different parts of India and add to discourse of environmental conservation.” And Kashmir came up in talks between India and China and foreign minister S Jaishankar told his Chinese counterpart that it was India's internal matter. Details here

A deal: Saudi Arabian Oil Company, better known as Saudi Aramco, has proposed to acquire a 20% stake in Reliance’s oil-to-chemicals business, Reliance Industries (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Monday. The deal, which values the business at $75 billion (including debt), is amongst India’s largest foreign direct investment and the biggest such “in the history of Reliance,” Ambani said. The deal is a win-win.

A win for Reliance: Reliance Industries may be India’s largest company by revenue, and the most profitable, but it is sitting on a pile of debt. The company’s consolidated debt for the financial year of 2019 (April 1, 2018, to March 31, 2019) was a whopping $65 billion. Four years ago, in the financial year 2015, the debt was $19 billion. Then, Reliance’s expansion on other fronts — from Jio to retail to upcoming e-commerce — mean the company cannot rely on its cash reserve to service the debt; in FY19 it had a net cash reserve of Rs 1.33 lakh crore (around $18 billion). To be clear, RIL’s debt-to-equity ratio was 0.74, which is to say creditors provided 74 paise for every 1 rupee of stockholders equity.

A win of Aramco: Saudi Aramco — an annual profit of $111.1 billion, which is nearly twice Apple’s — has been aggressively investing in what is known in industry parlance as downstream business, that is refineries. Aramco’s cash generator is its upstream business, that is oil exploration and production. But over-reliance on upstream business is not good amidst geopolitical uncertainty and is also less attractive to potential investors; Aramco has been looking to go public since last year. Thus it has entered into joint ventures in South Korea, Malaysia and China. And now it has RIL’s oil-to-chemical business. Under the deal, Saudi Aramco will also supply 500,000 barrels a day of crude oil on a long-term basis to RIL’s Jamnagar refinery. Jamnagar is the world's largest oil refinery.

Also a win for Delhi: Such a large FDI will also give the government a counter-argument amid talks of an economic slowdown in India.

Another win-win: Reliance Jio and Microsoft announced a long-term deal to provide cloud services to India’s small- and medium-scale businesses. This would help Jio to accelerate its digital services push (as well as JioFiber), whereas Microsoft’s Azure gets an edge over rival Amazon Web Service.

Deluge, again: A month after over 175 people were killed and more than a crore affected by floods in Bihar and Assam, flooding in southern (Karnataka and Kerala) and western states (Maharashtra and Gujarat) has led to about 150 deaths and left lakhs homeless. Six people were killed and two houses were washed away following a cloudburst in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on Monday. Floods are not new to India, nor the cost. Almost 15% of India is prone to floods and every year, on an average, 2,000 lives are lost and up to 80 lakh hectares affected, costing us about Rs 1,800 crore.

Nature or us? Unprecedented rains take a big share of the blame but it’s also about our lack of planning. We spend more on handouts after floods than on creating infrastructure to prevent floods and minimise casualties during floods. According to the National Commission on Floods, 80% of the area that’s prone to floods can be provided “a reasonable degree of protection” so as to minimise loss of life and property. In 2017, a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report had said that of the 219 planned telemetry stations, used to forecast floods, only 56 were set up. And of 375 existing stations, almost 60% were non-functional after installation. Dams have been a part of the problem too. Last year they played a role in Kerala floods and this year in Maharashtra (Lok Sabha recently passed the Dam Safety Bill which provides an institutional mechanism for inspection and maintenance to avert dam breaches). Rampant mining and quarrying, especially in hilly regions, brings landslides (like in Wayanad in Kerala) while riverbed sand-mining extends the flood-affected areas. Reports by expert committees have been quietly buried (the Kasturirangan panel’s report suggested that 37% of Western Ghats be declared a no-go zone while the Gadgil Committee put 64% as ecologically sensitive).

Better rain forecasts? The extreme rainfall and flooding situation this year once again highlights the increasingly erratic nature of the monsoon amid changing weather patterns. This means rainfall estimates need to be rigorously revised. It will require different measures in different regions.

What about relief? The primary responsibility for disaster management rests with the states, which can use funds from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF). If a calamity is declared one of ‘severe nature’, additional assistance is provided by the Centre from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF). The corpus of SDRF is contributed by the Centre and states in the ratio 75:25 (90:10 for special category states). NDRF, which is fully funded by the Centre, gets funds through National Calamity Contingent Duty levied on pan masala, chewing tobacco and cigarettes and through budget allocations.

It would be the first time since 1964 that India would have visited Pakistan to play the Davis Cup. And up until last week, almost all the details had been laid out for this year’s Asia-Oceania Zone Group 1 clash. The date and venue had been decided — September 14 and 15, on outdoor grass in Islamabad — and India had announced its squad under the captaincy of Mahesh Bhupathi. And then India scrapped Article 370, which stripped Kashmir of its special status. In retaliation to Indian government's decision, Pakistan then downgraded diplomatic ties with India. And in the changed political climate, security concerns now stand heightened — read the political gambit has thrown the Davis Cup tie into chaos. FYI: The Indian cricket team last toured Pakistan for the Asia Cup in June 2008 and following the Mumbai terror attacks later that year no Indian team across sport has travelled to the neighbouring country.

India: The All India Tennis Association (AITA) had initially approached world tennis’ governing body — the International Tennis Federation (ITF) — to shift the tie out of Pakistan and play at a neutral venue instead. But on Monday, it decided against seeking a change of venue, but requested the ITF to conduct another security check there. This after the Indian government made it clear that would not intervene since the Davis Cup is not a bilateral competition. “The Davis Cup is organised by a world sporting body [ITF],”said Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Kiren Rijiju. “Since India is a signatory to the Olympic charter, therefore, the government of India or the national federation do not have a say on whether India will participate or not,” he added.

Pakistan: Since 2017, Pakistan have played four of the five home ties in Islamabad, hosting Korea, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Iran. Hong Kong had refused to travel to Pakistan in April 2017, giving them a walkover. However, Pakistan have played in neutral venues before — the most recent instance was in March 2016, when it hosted China in Colombo, Sri Lanka. In 2015, it played its home ties versus Chinese Taipei in Turkey and hosted Kuwait in Colombo. But although AITA sought a change in venue, the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) have refused to agree to any change as preparations for the event have already begun.

ITF: ITF’s executive director Justine Albert had written to the AITA last week, saying that India should go ahead with its visa applications for the tie despite "some recent developments in political and diplomatic relations between the two nations". "...we are aware of the situation and are monitoring it. I agree that the safety of the players, officials and all stakeholders linked to the tie is the first priority for the ITF and all of us," it added. "However, I must stress that the overall security risk rating in Pakistan remains the same which means that as of today, the tie will take place in Islamabad as planned.” While the AITA has said it would go by the directives of the ITF, PTF chief Saleem Saifullah said the ITF had not yet contacted it on shifting the tie to a neutral venue.

Deaths-in-waiting: A hundred human lives are expected to be lost in Chhattisgarh this year — and every year hence — due to human-elephant conflict. That’s another way of saying that the central Indian state expects to see 100 of its residents trampled to death by the jumbos as human settlements and habitat penetrate into forest land, according to a study by the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

Tracking problem: Ironically, compared to other states which are also facing a human-pachyderm conflict — such as West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha and Karnataka — Chhattisgarh has a vast area for the elephants to live and roam, at 30,000 sq km, for its 250-300 elephants. That compares extremely favourably against the Rajaji National Park, which is spread over 470 sq km but houses 450 elephants. Part of the problem, say WII officials, is the difficulty of tracking the tuskers over that vast an area while the other part is that the animals are not ‘natives’ of the state but have instead have been newly settled there.

Smell of danger: Forest officials in Chhattisgarh disclosed that that the jumbos often go on a rampage in search of mahua (Madhuca longifolia) flowers and even raid homes in search of liquor made with these flowers. Experts observed that the practice of burning forests for collecting mahua flowers and tendu leaves by villagers destroys the habitats of tuskers, as a consequence of which, jumbos raid houses of villagers in search of liquor or grains. In the past five years, more than 50 people have been run over by jumbos in Chhattisgarh.

Food snatchers: According to WII, due to the presence of villages, grazing is rampant inside forest areas leaving very little food for the pachyderms. The worst affected are the areas in north Chhattisgarh which is the most conflict-prone zone. One way that experts feel will minimise chances of conflict between the humans and elephants would be to establish protected areas inside forest land where the tuskers can live unencumbered by human presence. Hopefully, that wouldn’t take 100 deaths to materialise.

The case: On February 13, the Supreme Court had ordered the eviction of about 1.7 million tribals and other “illegal” forest-dwellers across 16 states whose traditional claims over forest lands had been rejected under the Forest Rights Act. However, on February 28, it temporarily stayed the ruling and directed the states to file affidavits detailing the process adopted in rejecting the claims after the Centre asked the apex court for time to ascertain if the claims had been legitimately rejected or not.

The update: Several states have now admitted before the Supreme Court their fault in passing adverse orders against them and decided to review their decision. In compliance of the SC’s order, 16 states filed response and nine of them — Maharashtra, Tripura, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Goa, West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand and Rajasthan — admitted that there were irregularities on the part of the authorities in rejecting the claim on “extraneous” and “incorrect” grounds and agreed to review the orders.

The Act: The Forest Rights Act, which was passed in 2006, gives rights to forest-dwelling communities to land and other resources and seeks to reverse the British-era laws that overlooked their customary rights. States are supposed to implement the act.

The affected party: Tribal groups have raised the high rejection of claims under FRA from time to time. About 1.7 million individual and community claims (17,53,504 till March 31, 2019) under FRA have been rejected by state governments (from over 42 lakh claims received) and decision on 5.2 lakh claims is pending. While there may be duplications, that still means millions could face eviction.

Right or wrong? Activists say many claims have been rejected on flimsy grounds and it is nearly impossible for poor, illiterate tribals to prove they have lived on forest land and depended on the forest for ‘bonafide livelihood needs’ for 75 years. Wildlife advocates say that many of those whose claims have been rejected are encroachers on forest land and they should be evicted, much like the eviction from slums in cities.

What next? If the ‘reverification’ of the rejected claims brings down the claim rejections significantly, an adverse SC order would still lead to evictions, but the numbers will be smaller.

A threat: Russia’s communication watchdog, Roscomnadzor, has asked Google to stop posting information about unsanctioned political protests on its video service, YouTube. It said some of these videos were “aimed at damaging federal and regional elections”. If Google does not take “reactive measures, the Russian Federation will consider this as interference in the sovereign affairs of state and also as hostile and hindering to the conduction of democratic elections in Russia” and will reserve the right to adequate response, it said.

Unusual protests: Since the last four weeks, Moscow has civilians young and old protest, in an unusual sight for a nation where President Vladimir Putin holds a vice-like grip; last week Putin completed 20 years as the President or Prime Minister. Saturday, a sanctioned demonstration attracted an estimated crowd of more than 50,000 people, the largest turnout at a Moscow protest in several years. More than 200 people were arrested after some participants moved the protest from its sanctioned spot into the heart of the Russian capital, reports Associated Press.

Political unrest: Muscovites are ostensibly protesting against the exclusion of opposition and independent candidates from the city council vote. Among those barred from running are allies of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, a critic of Putin. But it is more than about the city council vote. They are essentially protesting against Putin. As German publication Deutsche Welle’s Miodrag Soric writes here, the protest has brought together liberal-minded youths calling for more freedom and western-style democracy as well as older Muscovites, communist flags in hand, “mourning for the Soviet era, when, in their view, the state took care of its people”.

A tech crackdown: The civil unrest has also coincided with a broader tech crackdown. This year, Russia passed a law that requires the routing of internet traffic through Russian servers — a move that would enable the government to censor the internet traffic a la China. In 2016, a law was passed that called on internet providers to store records of all communications for six months, as well as help intelligence agencies break encrypted communications like Telegram and WhatsApp. Now as protesters post videos and publications cover it, authorities are wary of a domino effect it could have.

The Professional Golfers' Association PGA Tour says it will look closer at its pace-of-play policy, which could lead to timing players who typically take a long time playing shots. The issue, which has been around as long as today’s generation of players has been alive, came into the spotlight this weekend when a video of golfer Bryson DeChambeau taking more than two minutes to line up a putt sparked controversy. To be precise, DeChambeau took 2 minutes, 6 seconds to hit an 8-foot putt on the eighth hole during the Northern Trust tournament on Friday.

Players criticised DeChambeau for his pace and the tour for a policy that makes penalty shots rare. Under the current policy, players are timed only when their group falls out of position. One minute is allowed for the first player to hit a particular shot and 40 is seconds allowed for the others. When told they are on the clock, players often speed up, seldom incurring penalties for slow play. However, even this remains a source of controversy, as there hasn’t been a penalty handed out in over two decades.

The PGA Tour, on its part, has leveraged its ShotLink technology to provide every player with a pace-of-play report that they can access which breaks down the varying parts of their game and gives feedback on the amount of time on average that the player takes to hit a particular shot. (The technology has been in use for more than a decade. The time was unofficial because it was based on when the scorer recorded the shot, not when it was deemed to be his turn to hit.)

Tyler Dennis, the tour's chief of operations, said: “We are currently in the process of reviewing this aspect of pace of play and asking ourselves, 'Is there a better way to do it?” Bottomline: As much as DeChambeau wouldn’t like it (he remains defiant), it’s about time that the tour (and golf) gets serious. As things currently stand, only the most die-hard golf fans can put up with it. There simply isn’t anything fun for a casual viewer in watching a player take over two minutes deciding how they want to hit the ball.

Fashion police: A day after Versace was forced to apologise over a T-shirt design that suggested Hong Kong and Macau are not in China, Chinese social media users escalated their online nationalism to target New York-based fashion label Coach and LVMH-owned Givenchy.

Backstory: Amidst continuing protest in Hong Kong — a semi-autonomous region controlled by China — Chinese social media users have targeted companies that are perceived to be critical of Beijing or against the ‘One China One Policy’. Versace’s T-Shirt listed capital cities and their countries — London, England; Paris, France — but also had ‘Hong Kong, Hong Kong’ in its design.

And now: After similar designs of Coach and Givenchy were spotted, Chinese users began a campaign against them. But the criticism wasn’t just from regular users. On Monday, supermodel Liu Wen, Coach’s China ambassador, said she had severed her endorsement deal with the company. Liu is considered China’s first supermodel and was on the cover of Vogue in 2017.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, authorities cancelled all outgoing flights after thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators flooded into the airport. The protest, which was triggered by a now-shelved extradition bill, has grown into a veritable challenge to the China-ruled administration of the city.

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Mahavir Singh Phogat. The noted wrestling coach along with his daughter and international wrestler Babita Phogat joined the BJP on Monday. Mahavir, who was the chief of the Jannayak Janata Party’s sports cell, left the party floated last year by former Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala following a vertical split in the Indian National Lok Dal. Mahavir’s switch comes barely two months before the Haryana Assembly polls. The Phogats joined the BJP in the presence of sports and youth affairs minister Kiren Rijiju, the party’s general secretary in charge of Haryana Anil Jain and its state chief Subhash Badala.